The New Website Checklist: Data, Systems, and What to Demand Before You Pay

Most new-website briefs stop at design, pages, and "can I edit the text myself?" That is how you end up with a site that looks finished and quietly cannot be found, measured, or improved.

This checklist is for the brief before you pay - whether you are hiring a designer, buying an off-the-shelf builder, or prompting an AI site tool. It is not a substitute for the technical SEO checklist you run on a live site, or for the Search Console setup guide. Those come after. This one stops you commissioning a site that cannot use them.

1. Data You Must Own

"Access through the builder dashboard" is not the same as owning the accounts. If the business does not control the Google property, you cannot hand it to an agency, connect Ads, or plug it into a monitoring platform later.

• A Google account the business controls long-term (not a freelancer's personal Gmail, not a temporary login that disappears at handover).
• A Google Analytics 4 property under that account, ready before go-live - not "we will add tracking after launch".
• A Google Search Console property for the domain, with ownership verified, and the XML sitemap submitted on day one.
• A Google Business Profile if you have a real-world location customers search for locally.
• Domain DNS access you can reach without chasing the builder (TXT records for Search Console verification live here).

If the plan you are buying cannot install Analytics or custom tracking without an upgrade, treat that as a buying decision now - not an upsell after the site is live. Measurement belongs in the brief as a default, the same way HTTPS does - not as a paid add-on.

2. Systems That Must Exist at Launch

A content editor is not a website. Google needs a crawlable structure, a sitemap it can fetch, and pages that are allowed to be indexed.

• A real XML sitemap at a stable URL (usually /sitemap.xml), not only a list of pages inside a private editor.
• Pages are indexable: no leftover noindex, no "discourage search engines" checkbox left on from staging. If the site never appears in Google, work through why your website is not showing up before assuming it is a ranking mystery.
• Every important page has a unique title, one clear H1, and a sensible heading hierarchy beneath it (heading tags for SEO).
• Meaningful images have alt text; decorative ones can use empty alt.
• The whole site runs on HTTPS, forms actually submit and notify someone, and URLs are stable and readable (URL structure).
• Relevant schema markup on key pages (Organization or LocalBusiness at minimum where it applies).

If the tool can only edit copy and cannot expose sitemap, robots, or structured data, you are commissioning a brochure - not a growth asset. That gap is common with AI and cheap builders: a content editor is not the same as crawlable site structure, owned Analytics, or a sitemap you can submit.

3. How You Will Know It Is Working

Traffic without a conversion signal is a vanity number. Set the measurement bar in the brief.

• Key events in Analytics for the actions that matter (form submit, call click, booking started) - not pageviews alone.
• A five-minute weekly Search Console habit: Performance for sudden drops, Pages/Coverage for new errors, a glance at Core Web Vitals. The beginner's guide covers what each report means.
• A simple first-30-days picture of "good enough": sitemap accepted, important pages indexed or clearly diagnosed, forms producing real enquiries, no surprise security or indexing notices in Search Console.

You do not need a full marketing stack on day one. You do need enough data to tell whether the site is doing its job.

Questions to Ask the Builder Before You Pay

Put these in writing. Vague answers ("we will sort SEO later") are a red flag.

1. Will GA4 and Search Console live on our Google account before go-live, on the plan we are buying, with no upgrade required to add the tags?
2. Will you submit the XML sitemap and confirm important pages are not blocked by noindex or robots.txt?
3. Who owns the domain, hosting, and admin logins after handover - and in whose name?
4. Can we export or leave with our content, redirects, and tracking IDs if we change platform later?
5. What will you check in the first two weeks after launch (forms, indexing, Analytics realtime), and who is responsible if something fails?

After Launch

Once the site is live, run the technical SEO checklist and a free page scan for structure, speed, and accessibility issues you can fix next. Search Console and Analytics are the data layer; the scan explains what to fix on the page. The full AuditCrow platform is built to connect that data and turn it into a clear next action - verify live, watch outcomes - once you are ready for ongoing monitoring.

A cheap site with these foundations in the brief can grow. A polished site without them caps itself before month one.